Carton divider

ABSTRACT

An improved sub-divider panel construction for dividing or subdividing the space within a carton. The sub-divider panels which are adapted to project outwardly from opposite sides of the main body of the main divider panel are proportioned so that the subdivider panels of adjacent panels may be arranged one above the other and extending inwardly from opposite sides of the space defined between adjacent main body panels. This construction prevents the dividers to be located in sequence between the articles which are to be spaced thereby by lowering from above the articles which are to be spaced.

United States Patent [191 Langen et al.

[ 51 Feb. 25, 1975 I CARTON DIVIDER [22] Filed: Mar. 26, 1973 [21] Appl.No.: 344,908

Primary Examiner Edward J. McCarthy Attorney, Agent, orFirmFetherstonhaugh & Co.

[57] ABSTRACT An improved sub-divider panel construction for dividing orsub-dividing the space within a carton. The subdivider panels which areadapted to project outwardly from opposite sides of the main body of themain divider panel are proportioned so that the sub-divider panels ofadjacent panels may be arranged one above the other and extendinginwardly from opposite sides of the space defined between adjacent mainbody panels. This construction prevents the dividers to be located insequence between the articles which are to be spaced thereby by loweringfrom above the articles which are to be spaced.

1 Claim, 5 Drawing Figures PATENIH] H82 5 I975 SHEET 2 as 2 CARTONDIVIDER FIELD OF INVENTION This invention relates to cartons wherein thecontainer space is divided and sub-divided by divider panel means. Inparticular, this invention relates to an improved divider panelconstruction which is particularly suitable for use in the high speedloading of containers.

A very large number of different divider panels and divider panelassemblies have been designed for dividing the space within a cartoninto a plurality of compartments. These constructions have included bothlongitudinal and transverse divider panels which interlock with oneanother. Gernerally the practice is to locate the divider panels in thecontainer space before the articles which are to be shipped in thecontainer are loaded into the container space. It has been found thatthe machinery for loading cartons can be considerably simplified if thecarton is loaded from one end, however, difficulty has been experiencedin attempting to transversely sub-divide an end loading carton so as toeffectively separate containers such as bottles or the like.

SUMMARY It is an object of the present invention to overcome thedifficulties of the prior art by providing a simple and inexpensivecarton divider construction in which the transverse sub-divider panelsof adjacent dividers may overlap one another.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a carton dividercomprises a main body panel and a sub-divider panel hingedly connectedto the main body panel. The sub-divider panel has a first portionadapted to project outwardly from one side of the main body and a secondportion adapted to project outwardly from the other side of the mainbody of the panel. The first portion has an upper edge and the secondportion has a lower edge, the upper edge of at least the outer end ofthe first portion is disposed in a plane below the plane of at least theouter end of the lower edge of the second portion.

According to a further embodiment of the present invention, a cartoncomprises wall means defining a container space and at least two dividerpanels mounted witnin the container space dividing it into longitudinalcompartments. Each of the divider panels is formed to providesub-divider panels having a first portion projecting outwardly from oneside of the main body panel and a second portion projecting outwardlyfrom the other side of the main body panel of each divider panel, thefirst portions of the sub-divider panels on one divider panel underlyingthe second portions of the sub-divider panel on an adjacent dividerpanel and transversely dividing the longitudinal chambers into aplurality of compartments.

The invention will be more clearly understood after reference to thefollowing detailed specification read in conjunction with the drawings,wherein FIG. 1 is a plan view of a blank of a divider panel according toan embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a pictorial side view illustrating the manner in which thedivider panels are located between adjacent rows of bottles;

FIG. 3 is a pictorial view illustrating the manner in which the cartonsare end loaded;

FIG. 4 is a partially sectioned pictorial view illustrating the mannerin which the dividers are positioned when a carton is loaded; and

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken in the direction of the arrows 5-5 ofFIG. 4.

With reference to the drawings, reference numeral 10 refers generally toa divider panel according to an embodiment of the present invention. Thedivider panel consists of a main body portion I2 which is cut to providea plurality of subdivider panels generally identified by the referencenumeral 14. End flaps 16 are hingedly connected along hinge lines 18 atopposite ends of the panel 12. Each of the sub-divider panels 14consists of a first portion 20 and a second portion 22. The firstportion 20 is hingedly connected along hinge lines 24 to the main bodyportion 12. The first portion 20 have an upper edge 26 which underliesand is nestable with the lower edge 28 of the second portions 22.

When the divider panel is to be used, the sub-divider panels are foldedon fold lines 24 so that all of the first portions 20 project outwardlyfrom one side face thereof and all of the second portions 22 extendoutwardly from the other side face. When the sub-divider panels arelocated in this position, a first divider panel is positioned betweentwo adjacent rows of containers in the manner shown in FIG.2 of thedrawings by lowering the divider into position in the direction of thearrow A so that the first portion 20 of the first positioned panelprojects in a direction towards the position in which the second dividerpanel is to be located. As shown in FIG. 2 of the drawing the structureof the first positioned divider panel permits a second divider panel tobe located between the subsequent row of hottles by lowering thisdivider panel therebetween in a direction of the arrow B. Eachsubsequent divider panel is lowered until the nested overlappingrelationship illustrated in FIG. 5 of the drawings is achieved. It willbe apparent that because of the fact that the upper edge of the outerend of the first portion of the divider panel is located at a lowerlevel than the lower edge of the outer end of the second portion, it ispossible to achieve the sequential location of the divider panel betweenadjacent rows without the sub-divider panels interfering with oneanother.

The bottles 30, with the divider panels located therebetween asdescribed above, are loaded into the container space 32 of an endloading carton 34 as diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 3 of thedrawing.

when the dividers are located within the carton, the end flaps 16 may beadhesively bonded to the ends of the carton.

FIGS. 4 and 5 of the drawings illustrate the manner in which the dividerpanel 12 and sub-divider panels 14 serve to define the containercompartment 32 into four longitudinally extending chambers, each ofwhich is sub-divided into six compartments. This construction may beused in the packaging of bottles such as beer bottles and the like.

As clearly shown in FIG. 5 of the drawings, the upper surface of theportion 20 of one of the sub-divider panels is adapted to nest with thelower surface of the portion 22 of an adjacent divider. This provides aneffective sub-divider for dividing bottles and the like which extendsacross the full width of the chamber. Each of the arms 20 and 22 areproportioned so as to project outwardly from the panel 12 a distancewhich is greater than half of the distance between adjacent panels sothat when only one portion of the sub-divider panel projects into thespace which is to be sub-divided, as in the outer chamber of H6. 5, thesub-divider panel is of a sufficient length to effectively sub-dividethe compartment. The carton and divider may be made from paperboard,corrugated paperboard or the like.

Various modifications of the present invention will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention.For example, the subdivider fingers may have a different contour andthey may be spaced apart from one another vertically of the space whichis to be sub-divided.

The divider of the present invention is simple to construct and installand it provides an efficient divider panel.

The divider of the present invention may be installed by means of theapparatus described in the applicants copending application Ser. No.343,724 filed Mar. 22, l973 and entitled Carton Loader, now US. Pat. No.3,845,852.

What we claim as our invention is:

l. A lay flat cardboard divider blank, comprising:

a main body panel,

a series of similar single ply sub-divider panels cut from said panel,

each of said sub-divider panels being connected to said main body panelabout a hinge axis and having a first portion on one side of its hingeaxis and a second portion on the other side of its hinge axis and beingswingable about its hinge axis to locate said first portion thereof onone side of said main body panel and said second portion thereof on theother side of said main body panel,

adjacent sub-divider panels in said series of subdivider panels in thelay flat condition being disposed with a first portion of onesub-divider panel in close relation to a second portion of the othersub-divider panel and with the upper edge of at least the outer end ofsaid first portion below the lower edge of said second portion wherebysaid first portion of each of said sub-divider panels is above thesecond portion thereof when said subdivider panels are swung about theirhinge axis to locate the first portion thereof on one side of said mainpanel and a second portion thereof on the other side of said main panel.

* a =l l

1. A lay flat cardboard divider blank, comprising: a main body panel, aseries of similar single ply sub-divider panels cut from said panel,each of said sub-divider panels being connected to said main body panelabout a hinge axis and having a first portion on one side of its hingeaxis and a second portion on the other side of its hinge axis and beingswingable about its hinge axis to locate said first portion thereof onone side of said main body panel and said second portion thereof on theother side of said main body panel, adjacent sub-divider panels in saidseries of sub-divider panels in the lay flat condition being disposedwith a first portion of one sub-divider panel in close relation to asecond portion of the other sub-divider panel and with the upper edge ofat least the outer end of said first portion below the lower edge ofsaid second portion whereby said first portion of each of saidsub-divider panels is above the second portion thereof when saidsub-divider panels are swung about their hinge axis to locate the firstportion thereof on one side of said main panel and a second portionthereof on the other side of said main panel.